UX Research in the Age of AI: From Validation to Anticipation

With pressure to integrate AI into every corner of the digital experience, one phrase keeps showing up in product teams: “We just need to validate this AI feature.” I hear this constantly, and it worries me. This seemingly harmless sentence reveals a deeper problem. It assumes the solution exists. That the need is known. That the user is understood. And that the job of UX research is to rubber-stamp usability rather than ask hard questions about whether the thing should exist in the first place.